(photo by Lon Horwedel)Phil Mickelson must have been born in Cleveland. There can be no other explanation. Nobody can finish second in the U.S. Open five times, can they?
Yes, they can. Mickelson did it today for a record fifth time. He's like watching the Cleveland Browns, or this year's Cleveland Indian's bullpen. Somehow, someway, they'll blow it. You're never quite sure how, you're just sure they will. I'm never comfortable watching the Tribe, Browns or Mickelson when they have a big lead, because I know all three of them can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in incredible, almost unbelievable ways.
This week, my beloved Indians blew not one, not two, but three 7-run leads in one week. On their current 6-game losing streak, they've lost four games they were leading going into the 8th inning.
A few years back my other beloved Cleveland team, the Browns, managed to lose to the Bears when they had a 14 point lead with 38 seconds left in the game - and the Bears were out of timeouts! One Hail Mary, a successful onside kick, followed by another Hail Mary, and the game was tied at 21. The Browns then tossed an interception on the second play of overtime, which, of course, was run back for a touchdown sending the Browns to a 28-21 defeat.
That's it, right? No team could possibly lose more incredibly than that. Wrong. The very first game the next season it appeared they beat the Kansas City Chiefs in a close after nearly sacking the Chiefs quarterback, only to have him heave the ball in the air to an offensive lineman behind the line of scrimmage who was then shoved out of bounds as the clock expired.
It sure seemed like the game was over. Browns win their opener right? Chalk it up, 1-0. Only one problem. One of the Browns linebackers, Duane Rudd, had taken off his helmet to celebrate what he assumed was a victory. Wrong! Rudd was penalized for excessive celebration and since the game can't end on a defensive penalty the Chiefs got one more play. With the yardage they gained from penalty, they now were in field goal range, and with no time left on the clock, they calmly booted the field goal to beat the Browns by a point. Now, I had seen it all.
Phil Mickelson is the golfing equivalent of professional sports in Cleveland. You want so badly for the guy to win, but you just know he's going blow it somehow - maybe that 5-footer he's gonna miss down the stretch, or that drive he'll blast out of play. Why can't he just make those damn putts like Tiger does? Why can't he just hit a fairway when he needs to? Why do we all get so caught up in a guy none of us even knows?
Probably because we feel like we do know Phil. He addresses media members by their first names in post-round interviews. He admits when he's done something idiotic (Winged Foot meltdown). He doesn't make excuses. He seems like a genuinely, good guy. Plus he lives on the edge. He'll make a load of birdies, but he'll make an equal load of bogeys - or worse. He's fun to root for because he pulls you into his battles emotionally.
Tiger? We don't worry about Tiger. If he comes in second it's because he "didn't have his A-game." But if Phil comes in second it's because he just couldn't finish the deal, or someone else stepped up and delivered - or a combination of the two (Payne Stewart '99, Retief Goosen '04).
Today was no exception. With his wife Amy giving plenty of ammo for that Hollywood ending (she wanted the Open trophy in her hospital room when she begins cancer treatments next week) NBC had to be licking their chops when Mickelson stuck his approach to 5-feet on No. 13, then actually drained the eagle putt to vault himself into a tie for the lead.
"If he can only stick one in their on 14 (a short, 127-yard par-3) and make it two in a row," we all thought, "then the tournament is his!"
Fools! That's what we are - fools. He had us sucked in and we all fell for it. "It has to happen," we thought, "this is the year he finally breaks through." The last time he blew an Open he was on the verge of winning his third straight major before he made a mockery of the 18th at Winged Foot. Surely he's learned his lesson from that debacle. (He hasn't won a major since).
Phil hit a good, if not great shot into 14, but lazied a putt down to the hole that never had a chance.
"That's okay, nothing wrong with par." We thought.
Then he hits a ball into the rough off the 15th tee.
"That's okay, he's drawn a good lie." We thought.
After reaching the back fringe in two, we all breathed a sigh of relief. But then he does it - again! Phil leaves his first putt some 5-6 feet short of the hole.
"Noooooo!!!! What are you doing Phil?" we all scream at the TV.
Just like the Tribe in the 8th inning or the Browns in the fourth quarter we already know the outcome. He'll miss the putt; not only miss it, but blow it 6-feet past the hole. Amazingly he jars the comebacker for bogey. Even more amazingly, he jars a 10-footer for par on the next hole. But the damage is done. He's now a stroke behind Lucas Glover and on No. 17, Mickelson, who supposedly has this great short game, can't get it up and down for par, missing yet another 6-footer.
Needing a birdie on 18 to have any chance, Phil bombs a drive nearly to the green. With the hole cut right up front you just know he's going to hit one of those ozone-scraping lob wedges that will sit down right next to the hole for a tap in birdie. Right?
Wrong.
Instead he tries to spin back a low-flying wedge that doesn't come back at all, leaving Phil a 30-footer for birdie, which, of course, he runs past the edge of the hole just close enough to make you groan.
"Damn, he did it again." You think to yourself as Glover takes Phil's trophy out of Amy's hospital room and plants it firmly on his mantle and in the history books.
Two short putts cost Phil once again. And really, can we stop saying Phil has this awesome short game. Yeah, he pulls off an amazing flop shot from time to time and he can hit it backwards over his head off the steep face of a bunker. But just as often he tries something stupid, like a flop shot from the front fringe when he has a million miles of green to work with where he could just as easily hit a standard bump and run. Then, if he chunks it and leaves himself with a 50-footer for par, nobody questions his decision making. And that's not even touching on all the missed short putts he never seems to make when he needs them.
Maybe one of these days Phil will drain those 6-footers for par. And maybe one of these days the Browns will go to the Super Bowl and actually win the damn thing. And maybe the Indians will do the same in the World Series. Phil did, after all, break through and win the Masters after years of near misses. But somehow this U.S. Open thing is different. Somehow it seems to leave some golfers permanently snake bitten. Just ask Sam Snead, Tom Lehman and Colin Montgomery - they'll tell you how cruel it can be. And so can Phil.
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